Sommaire pour Issue 2, 2019: Small Spaces, Smart Solutions de DESIGNLINES

FRESHLY PRESSED HOMES In our next issue, we’ll be touring newly built homes across the GTA. But you can get your fix online at any time, starting with architect Paul Raff’s Kaleidoscope House, a zinc-clad residence that maximizes sunlight. DON’T MISS OUT ON DL’S INSTAGRAM FEED Follow @designlinesmagazine on Instagram to see stunning homes, behind-the-scenes stories from our photo shoots and exclusive teasers of the hottest tickets in town.…

The Moon: A Voyage Through Time To Aug 18 Marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, this exhibition is anchored by British artist Luke Jerram’s replica moon. Measuring five metres in diameter, it features detailed NASA imagery and a haunting sound composition. AGAKHANMUSEUM.ORG Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival May 1-31 American artist Carrie Mae Weems, whose haunting photographs have explored race, class and gender identity since the ’70s, headlines this annual city-wide photo fete. SCOTIABANKCONTACTPHOTO.COM Doors Open Toronto May 25 & 26 Among the many locations to scout at the 20th edition of this weekend fest are the Toronto Zoo Wildlife Health Centre, and Stackt Market, the new marketplace built from shipping-containers. DOORSOPENONTARIO.ON.CA In the Age of Rembrandt Jun 1-Sep 15 An unprecedented exhibition brings over five dozen…

When entrepreneur Andrew Peek and interior designer Stefanie Koerner – then affiancéd – bought their loft conversion in 2018, they loved its sky-high, wood-planked ceilings and rough-hewn columns and beams. However, they didn’t love the corner unit’s seemingly inverted layout or its Arizona-inspired decor. Guests used to enter into a long, earthen-coloured hallway, and had to walk by the condo’s two pokey bedrooms – and two strangely side-by-side bathrooms – before reaching the open kitchen–living space and a view of nearby Trinity Bellwoods Park. At the time, Peek and Koerner were both working with architecture firm StudioAC on developing a hospitality project – the recently opened Annex Hotel. They asked principal designers Jennifer Kudlats and Andrew Hill if there was a way to unscramble the plan of their “terracotta pot”…

What is your name? David Agnew What have you done for us lately? One of the great perks of being a copy editor is that even while I’m working, I get to learn about new subjects every day. Sometimes it’s architecture and design, and other times it’s forest management or blockchain, but there’s always something to appeal to my curiosity. If money were no object, what would you buy to cheer up your decor after a long winter? Hard to choose just one thing, but I’d really love one of local artist Zachari Logan’s Eunuch Tapestries – a series of massive pastelon-black-paper wall hangings packed with intricately detailed vegetation. It would be like having a picture window looking out onto my own private garden. What is your name? Amrit Phull…

Kate MacNeill, the dynamo talent behind Concord Custom Lighting, a new Toronto design and manufacturing studio, got her start cutting, bending, threading and welding custom luminaires at Commute Home. “At that stage,” she says, “I had no experience with electrical or metal working at all.” That changed when Yoki Milke, who now runs his own lighting studio, Milke Bau, began mentoring her in Commute’s busy west end workshop. She’s a quick study: within five years, the PEI native and graduate of Humber’s Cabinet Making program went from tinkering with wire sockets to coordinating complex lighting orders with local shops and fabricators. “I would be taking a drawing and figuring out the sum of its parts – essentially building myself an Ikea kit. When all was said and done, there might…

Joel Loblaw Imagine a romantic walk down a pier on a summer’s eve – in your own backyard. Joel Loblaw’s landscape studio crafted just that for a Summerhill home, with its clever transformation of an expired in-ground pool into a tranquil cottage escape. A knotty cedar “boardwalk” passes over the concrete foundations of the pool, now veiled in ground-cover plants and scattered boulders that recall the rugged textures of the Canadian Shield. Flanked with thickets of under-lit hydrangea, dwarf Korean lilac, dogwood and serviceberry, the walkway leads to a comfortable outdoor room defined by cedar slat walls. The lantern-like lounge is illuminated by a frosted glass prism at its centre, which acts as both a usable surface and the hearth of the garden. Like a peaceful rural dock, the urban…

Ai Weiwei: Unbroken To Jun 9 Ai Weiwei is one of the few artists as celebrated for making ceramics as he is for destroying them. Take his 1995 photo series Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, which captures the Beijing-born human rights activist letting go of a 2,000-year-old ceremonial vessel. Or his mesmeric 2010 landscape Sunflower Seeds (shown), made from millions of meticulously hand-painted porcelain husks, produced over years by workers in rural China. Both are on view as part of a sweeping exhibition at the Gardiner Museum. “Ceramics are fascinating,” says Ai. “I love the tradition, how people for generations have tried to make something happen with this basic language of communication besides its practical uses.” His recent takes on Chinese blue and white porcelain, for example, depict scenes of…

“THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE BUILDING ARE EXPOSED THROUGH AN INTERCONNECTED STAIRCASE THAT CAN BE SEEN FROM ELIZABETH STREET. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SEE SICKKIDS STAFF MOVING AROUND. THE PROGRAM OF THE BUILDING REVEALS ITSELF.”– PATRICK FEJÉR, SENIOR DESIGN PRINCIPAL AT B+H ARCHITECTS 1 GREY’S ANATOMY B+H Architects’ SickKids Patient Support Centre (PSC) could be the hit medical drama of the season. The 22-storey building at the corner of Elm and Elizabeth streets will feature an undulating, transparent facade with an attention-grabbing blue-ribbon staircase where you’ll see researchers dashing between levels. This transparency is all part of a plan to support hospital staff and promote community-building in the Discovery District. It’s also the first phase of Project Horizon, an ambitious SickKids campus redevelopment strategy that will soon add a…

Ingrid and Nesmith Chingcuanco aren’t the type to fret about a wall colour or agonize over a dozen sofas before settling. Function is the couple’s shared desire in a home. So after buying their first condo, they arrived at their new Bay Street high-rise with nothing but a mattress. As a pre-reno exercise, the couple ghost-lived in the unit for three weeks (they still had their old place), searching for the places where their elbows knocked and the floorplan failed. It’s how they determined the master shower was too tight, the third bathroom’s inner self was clearly a laundry room, and the crowded eat-in kitchen would definitely need to open up. Faced with mismatched flooring, French doors and turn-of-the-millennium lighting, the couple found themselves dreaming of a calm aesthetic and…